>>10626380Diving Lessons
This is it.
Rent’s due in a week, you’ve given a bunch of your stuff away and your small apartment is pretty much devoid of any valuables now.
No family that really cares about you, and your last friend is getting more and more distant with every day. The last text you got from someone was two weeks ago, and that was because they wanted something from you.
Bitterness clutches your heart tightly and bile threatens to climb up your throat as you pull your hood up and stomp through the downpour of rain, following a road down to a place you’ve enjoyed.
Cars drive past and people brush past you- all faceless, but without a doubt all humans with more goals and success than you’ll ever hope to achieve. You weren’t necessarily a failure to your family, just incredibly unremarkable. Your face is right next to the definition of ‘average’ in the dictionary, you’ve never excelled and stood out.
You did what your parents wanted and went to college and got some degree, something random so they’d get off your back, but it was a bad choice. You’re in a bit of debt and this degree in... something about ocean conservation, it was useless. You weren’t able to find a job with it, save for the shitty fast food line cook one that you worked for the past two years.
Your phone rings, but you know who it is. Your manager’s probably pissed you didn’t show up for your shift, but what do you care?
The path turns to sand underneath your shoes, and you see it- a pier that stretches past stormy waves, beckoning you.
A hysterical laugh leaves your chapped lips.
The place you’ve always come when you were stressed, sitting on the edge and meditating until your soul was as calm as the waters below.
Raindrops batter your face and the winds pull your hood off, exposing you to the full relentless force of the rainstorm. Gales howling in your ears, you hum to yourself as you skip down the soaked wooden boards, stomach churning. You’ve come this far, there’s no turning back now!
Swinging your legs over the edge, you stare down at violent waves below you- so cold and hostile. Cold was good, right? Apparently drowning was one of the most peaceful ways to go. You take a deep breath, no longer sure if the liquids on your face are entirely rain or now joined by tears.
“Oi! Hey buddy! What’re you doin’!” A voice, from behind you and about ten meters back.
Sorrow fills you as you realize now you have to scar someone with your actions, but you’ve come to far to stop.
Whispering one last apology to everyone you’ve let down, you jump and plunge into the ocean below. The cold forces your breath out of your lungs, the weight of your soaked clothes pulling you deeper and deeper into the abyss. Your brain screams for air and you wrestle with it, doing your best to do absolutely nothing and expedite your suicide. Your legs flail here and there, but you think you’ve done it.
As your eyes begin to drift closed, you register one thing before falling unconscious and it’s a grip on your neck. Maybe some demon taking you to hell?
. . .
“Heeeey buddy! Are you awake?” A voice chirps, followed by a prod to your ribs.
Seawater fills your mouth and you vomit, turning onto your side and heaving violently, lungs clearing themselves of water.
“Oh come on, not the sandals!” You hear, as someone steps back.
Some... girl?
Blearily, you look up to see the source and set your eyes on a small girl dressed in a blue hoodie... and with a tail like a shark’s?
“You know you’re terrible at diving, right? You didn’t even bring the right suit or anything. What kind of amateur are you?”
“I... I-I was trying to kill myself,” you mutter, wiping your lips with the back of your hand and smearing puke on it, “who... a-are you?”
“Kill yourself? Why?” The girl frowns, sitting on a small stool of driftwood.
“Name’s Gura, by the way.”
